Nat Gas Price in Europe European gas prices have soared in recent weeks, climbing to a high of $25 per million British thermal units (chart 1, left panel). A number of factors, from Russian supply bottlenecks to a lack of wind in the North Sea, caused the spike. As winter approaches, the countries most dependent on gas—for heating homes and generating electricity—could be feeling the chill.
Even before the recent price surge, gas was in short supply. A prolonged northern-hemisphere winter meant that European countries ran down reserves, leaving their stocks 25% below the historic average (chart 1, right panel). Disruptions of imports piped from Russia and Norway, which supply nearly half of Europe’s gas, made inventories hard to replenish. The flow from Norway was limited because of work on improving the country’s infrastructure; a fire at a processing plant in Siberia and the need to refill their own tanks after a brutal winter throttled Russian output.
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/09/20/what-is-behind-rocketing-natural-gas-prices European gas prices have soared in recent weeks, climbing to a high of $25 per million British thermal units (chart 1, left panel). A number of factors, from Russian supply bottlenecks to a lack of wind in the North Sea, caused the spike. As winter approaches, the countries most dependent on gas—for heating homes and generating electricity—could be feeling the chill.
Even before the recent price surge, gas was in short supply. A prolonged northern-hemisphere winter meant that European countries ran down reserves, leaving their stocks 25% below the historic average (chart 1, right panel). Disruptions of imports piped from Russia and Norway, which supply nearly half of Europe’s gas, made inventories hard to replenish. The flow from Norway was limited because of work on improving the country’s infrastructure; a fire at a processing plant in Siberia and the need to refill their own tanks after a brutal winter throttled Russian output.